The California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down
state law's limits -- and, most likely, local limits, too -- on how
much marijuana a patient or caregiver can possess or grow for
medical purposes.

But the state's highest court revived another part of state law that
a lower court had ordered voided, protecting the state's voluntary
identification card program for patients and caregivers.

The state attorney general's office had agreed with lawyers for
defendant Patrick Kelly, of Lakewood, that the limits should be
abolished but the ID card system retained.

Kris Hermes, spokesman for Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access,
said the court's ruling also renders unconstitutional many city and
county ordinances that impose possession and cultivation limits.
Oakland, for example, had set limits of up to 72 indoor plants with
up to 32 square feet of canopy, or up to 20 outdoor plants at any
stage of development, and as much as 3 pounds of dried marijuana.

"I imagine it'll apply to us as well," Oakland City Attorney John
Russo agreed. Though the ruling doesn't affect other local
regulations, such as dispensary permits or police de-prioritization
of marijuana enforcement, he added, "I think you can surmise pretty
safely that this decision indicates a very short remaining life for
some of the local attempts to quantify (legal amounts)."

McALLEN, Texas--A man who worked as a kidnapper for the Mexican Gulf
cartel testified Wednesday that a kidnapping team was ordered in the
summer of 2008 to convince drug dealers in south Texas to work with
the cartel and to sniff out potential competitors.

The kidnapping team took orders from Jaime Gonzalez Duran, known as
"El Hummer," a founding member of the Zetas, the cartel's
enforcement arm, testified Gerardo Zamora Espinoza.

Gonzalez wanted "people in the drug business to know that the cartel
could operate on this (the U.S.) side," Zamora Espinoza testified
Wednesday during the trial of Luis Avila Hernandez, who has been
charged in three kidnappings.

Mexican authorities arrested Gonzalez later that year. He is being
held in a maximum security prison there, while he is tried on
organized crime charges.

Zamora Espinoza testified he was involved in as many as seven
kidnappings but pleaded guilty to charges in only one in a deal with
prosecutors. Zamora Espinoza said his nephew, Angelo Raul Hernandez
Jr., ran the kidnapping squad based in Weslaco and received the
names of some targets directly from Gonzalez.

(3) VIVID TESTIMONY IN TRIAL OF THREE OFFICERS ACCUSED IN SUBWAY
( Top )

Pubdate: Fri, 22 Jan 2010Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Author: Kareem Fahim

In October 2008, from different vantage points, three members of the
Dallas family watched the frenzied sequence of events that Michael
Mineo says led to his abuse at the hands of police officers and that
the officers say led to a mostly unexceptional arrest.

Andrea Dallas watched from her car parked on Flatbush Avenue in
Brooklyn as police officers who had seen Mr. Mineo smoking a
marijuana cigarette chased him into the Prospect Park subway
station. Her son, James Avery Dallas, and her husband, also named
James, saw the officers confront Mr. Mineo in the station.

On Thursday, as the case opened in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn,
Ms. Dallas and her son testified that they had heard the same
anguished expression of disbelief over and over again from Mr.
Mineo: that an officer had "shoved a walkie-talkie" between his
buttocks.

"He never stopped yelling," Ms. Dallas said. "That's the only thing
I heard him say."

The Dallases' testimony provided the first witness accounts of the
hazy, disputed events of Oct. 15, 2008, when prosecutors contend
Officer Richard Kern repeatedly shoved his retractable baton between
Mr. Mineo's buttocks. Two other officers, Alex Cruz and Andrew
Morales, are charged with covering up the assault. The officers have
been assigned to desk duty, with their guns and badges taken away.

The "three strikes" law could see some of the worst criminals still
eligible for parole depending on the order in which they commit
their crimes, a criminologist has said.

The law, which National and Act have agreed to pass, opens the way
for huge inconsistencies in sentencing, said Professor Greg Newbold.

The University of Canterbury criminologist said an offender who
committed two assaults and a murder - in that order - would be
locked up for life, because the maximum sentence for murder was life
imprisonment.

But the new law would mean that someone who committed murder and
then two assaults would only serve the maximum penalty for assault,
a sentence length that varies depending on the attack and not a life
sentence.

Police Minister Judith Collins last night defended the law, saying
most murderers were given life sentences in which they were
eventually allowed to apply for parole, which carried set
conditions.

"If the offender later reoffends when on parole then they will most
likely be recalled to prison to continue to serve their life
sentence for the murder [first strike] as they have breached the
terms of their parole."

But Professor Newbold said a prisoner would still be able to apply
for parole within 12 months of being recalled to prison.

He said the law was "stupid" and lacked credibility and predicted it
would be challenged by defence lawyers.

The senselessness of the war on drugs is a theme that runs through
several stories this week. In Iowa, a young man has a series of
run-ins with authority after his refusal to stop using medicine that
helped him. In Florida, state laws and other factors make needle
exchanges difficult to fund and operate. Another sad story of drug
violence spilling over onto vacationers in Mexico, and a Hawaiian
newspaper illustrates the ongoing failure of the criminal justice
system to deal with drug problems with one person who has been
through the system dozens of times.

The boyish young man in the khaki slacks and brown sweater looks
Warren County Attorney Bryan Tingle straight in the eyes and
declares that his constitutional rights are being squashed.

He tells Tingle from his seat in the courtroom that Iowa's legal
system is treading on his freedom of religion, and on the freedom of
science and medicine to explore treatment alternatives for the
chronically and mentally ill.

With eyes gazing intently through his curly black hair, he tells
Tingle that he's not afraid of going to prison. And there's a
distinct possibility that, within a few weeks, he could land himself
there for five years.

He tells Tingle, who stands over him in a suit and tie, that if he
were to receive a prison sentence, he'd like to be held in contempt
of court and serve additional time.

"I'd have serious contempt for that decision," he says.

This is Jason Karimi, a 21-year-old Milo native whose allegiance to
the illegal drug marijuana has nearly landed him in prison on
multiple occasions since 2007, most recently during the
above-outlined Jan. 5 probation revocation hearing.

But despite the legal troubles, Karimi says marijuana has saved his
life, dragging him twice out of suicidal depression. He has argued,
and continues to argue, for his right to use the drug as medication
to treat mental illness - a lingering anxiety recently diagnosed as
bipolar disorder.

Karimi's is the story of how an honor student became a
twice-convicted criminal. How a young man decided to treat his own
mental illness with an illegal drug. How an aspiring computer
technician became an amateur advocate for medical marijuana.

"I've had a crazy last couple of years," Karimi said Jan. 6, leaning
forward in an armchair in a friend's Altoona apartment. "People
don't believe me, sometimes, when I try to tell them what's
happened."

BARTOW - Syringe-exchange programs can reduce the spread of HIV,
AIDS and hepatitis among IV-drug users without increasing illegal
drug use, many studies conclude, but a 21-year ban on federal
funding has limited those programs from expanding nationwide.

States, cities, counties or private groups have had to find money to
run them on their own because the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention can't. That created a patchwork network of
programs that gives clean needles in exchange for used ones that may
contain infected blood.

The number of syringe-exchange efforts could increase now that
Congress and President Obama approved legislation in mid-December to
end the ban, a move that would allow some CDC money to be spent on
those programs.

"Science has shown these programs reduce HIV transmission and do not
increase use of illegal drugs," said Nikki Kay, a CDC spokeswoman.

For Polk County to get a program up and running, however, it will
require more than federal help. State legislators would need to
allow a public health exemption to laws that target possession of
drug paraphernalia.

Bobby Salcedo grew up in El Monte, his immigrant parents staking the
family's future in the working-class suburb that felt worlds away
from the Mexican farming towns of their roots.

But like so many Mexican Americans, some of Salcedo's fondest
memories were from the winter and summer vacations when his family
would pack into the van and drive 1,300 miles south to the lands of
their ancestors in Jalisco.

The pace of life slowed there, with children hanging out in town
plazas late into the night and young men handing flowers to pretty
girls as they strolled in opposing circles. For many young Mexican
Americans, that small-town life seemed a panacea compared to the
urban stresses of Los Angeles, and to being cooped up at home,
playing video games and watching TV.

The connection to Mexico stayed with Salcedo through the years as he
became an assistant principal and El Monte school board member. He
continued to visit family in Mexico, and did charity work for South
El Monte's sister city, Gomez Palacio in Durango state. He met his
future wife there.

The 33-year-old Salcedo and his wife returned to her hometown this
Christmas to visit family and friends. A few days later, they were
at a bar when masked gunmen, suspected members of a drug cartel,
burst in and kidnapped Salcedo and five other men. They were shot to
death execution-style and dumped near a canal.

The case made headlines as an example of Mexico's out-of-control
drug war and prompted mourning in El Monte, where Salcedo was a
popular educator and a rising community leader.

It doesn't take a mathematician to crunch these numbers and figure
out that something went very, very wrong.

The story of Ashlee Pasion Rita is a sad one. We believe it could
and should have been averted.

Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe on Jan. 6 sentenced the
27-year-old mother of three to 10 years in prison for numerous drug
and property crimes.

In April, as police executed a search warrant, Rita exited her house
holding a toddler in her arms with an ice pipe in her waistband.
Inside, officers found a loaded .22 caliber handgun between the
cushions of the living-room couch.

The incident was the latest in a long line of dangerous behavior for
Rita.

Her criminal history included numerous arrests and convictions,
including one case in which she was convicted of seven felony counts
of forgery, a felony count of theft, and one felony count of
burglary.

While other print media are having trouble, a magazine devoted to
one drug trial in North Carolina seems to be doing quite well.
Elsewhere in the drug war, drug use and smuggling continues at both
ends of the age spectrum, and another claim that the drug war is
working, this time because seizures are allegedly down at the
U.S.-Mexican border.

A magazine has hit the streets of the Triangle that discloses
privileged information from a federal criminal investigation that
sent a man to prison for life. Some say Diamond Resort Magazine,
which has sold about 1,000 copies at $10 apiece, is a tool to
intimidate potential witnesses from testifying at criminal trials.
The magazine reprints court documents including witness interviews
and plea agreements, and it refers to "snitching" as violating the
"code of the street."

"People are already afraid to give information anonymously," said
Donna-maria Harris, whose 24-year-old son was one of four men
murdered inside a West Durham townhouse five years ago. Harris was
appalled when she found out information about her son's death was in
the magazine. "Now we have a magazine that's printing information
about who comes forward, with their names and pictures. To me it's
just one step above kiddie porn. It comes across as an intimidation
tactic."

The magazine's publisher, Delora Croudy, 23, who lives in Wake
County, said her motive is to scare young people straight.

"I'm giving it to you raw, without the sugar coating. This is
reality," Croudy said Monday. She said the magazine's name "just
came to me." Diamond Resort's front cover features a photograph of
Donald Stanton "Face" Shealey, 27, of Durham. In July, Judge Carl
Fox sentenced Shealey in a New Hanover County federal court to life
in prison for drug trafficking and money-laundering charges.

Police caught 188 students possessing, using or selling marijuana on
campus so far this year. That number doesn't include alcohol
violations, Dewey said.

Ukiah police want to use dogs and city reserves to crack down on
marijuana and alcohol sales at Ukiah High School.

The Ukiah City Council on Wednesday will consider Police Chief Chris
Dewey's proposal to use $20,793 left over after buying five
detective vehicles for less than was expected, to create a Police
Narcotic Canine Program.

"Over the last five years, on average, approximately 113 Ukiah High
School students a year have been found to be in possession, under
the influence, or have sold marijuana or alcohol on the school
campus," Dewey writes to open his memo to the council.

Two students were hospitalized last year after eating marijuana
brownies several students were distributing via a campus locker.

He said based on a school district administrator's estimate, the
high school will lose $300,000 in average daily attendance (ADA)
funding from the expulsions that have resulted from marijuana
violations so far this year.

EL PASO -- The cartel war in Juarez is hindering the flow of illegal
drugs and may be the reason for a steep drop in the amount of
marijuana seized last year at "stash houses" in El Paso.

The West Texas Stash House Unit last year reported it seized about
4,200 pounds of marijuana, plummeting from total seizures of 23,700
pounds in 2008 and 41,000 pounds in 2007.

The drop is extraordinary considering that in past years it was not
uncommon for narcotic investigators to make a ton seizure in a
single raid.

There are believed to be hundreds of stash houses in El Paso, where
drugs that have been smuggled across the border are stored before
being transported to cities across the nation.

U.S. narcotics investigators said the drop in stash house seizures
is due in part to difficulties smugglers are having, not only with
law enforcement and the Mexican army, but also with enemy
narco-traffickers in a war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug
cartels.

"Seizures are down, the prices of drugs are up, and further, the
purity of cocaine is down," said Special Agent Diana Apodaca of the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in El Paso.

In 2009, about 2,600 people were killed in Juarez due in part to a
fight for control of smuggling routes and street drug sales. There
have more than 100 slayings in 2010.

With New Jersey's endorsement of medical marijuana, there may be no
stopping the rehabilitation of cannabis from illegal drug to
legitimate therapy.

Late yesterday, Gov. Corzine signed a law making New Jersey the
fourteenth state to legalize medical pot. Four more states and the
District of Columbia are expected to follow suit by year's end.

Many things are driving this sea change. The federal government last
year announced that it would no longer prosecute medical marijuana
smokers in states where it is legal, while the National Institutes of
Health has begun funding research on medicinal use in a reversal of a
long-standing policy.

Gallup Polls show a solid majority of Americans sympathetic to
therapeutic marijuana use.

And the usually conservative American Medical Association, along with
the Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians, has joined
other medical groups in calling for research and development of
cannabinoid-based medicines.

Lawyer Keith Stroup, who founded the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in 1970, rejoiced: "We've had more
political progress and public support in the past three years than in
the previous 30. We've largely won the hearts and minds of Americans."

Paul Cohen, a physician and lawyer who teaches public health law at
Georgetown University, said, "I think we're pretty close to the
tipping point."

Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jan 2010Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Author: Gardiner Harris

Despite the Obama administration's tacit support of more liberal state
medical marijuana laws, the federal government still discourages
research into the medicinal uses of smoked marijuana. That may be one
reason that -- even though some patients swear by it - -- there is no
good scientific evidence that legalizing marijuana's use provides any
benefits over current therapies.

Lyle E. Craker, a professor of plant sciences at the University of
Massachusetts, has been trying to get permission from federal
authorities for nearly nine years to grow a supply of the plant that
he could study and provide to researchers for clinical trials.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration -- more concerned about abuse
than potential benefits -- has refused, even after the agency's own
administrative law judge ruled in 2007 that Dr. Craker's application
should be approved, and even after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
in March ended the Bush administration's policy of raiding dispensers
of medical marijuana that comply with state laws.

"All I want to be able to do is grow it so that it can be tested," Dr.
Craker said in comments echoed by other researchers.

Marijuana is the only major drug for which the federal government
controls the only legal research supply and for which the government
requires a special scientific review.

"The more it becomes clear to people that the federal government is
blocking these studies, the more people are willing to defect by using
politics instead of science to legalize medicinal uses at the state
level," said Rick Doblin, executive director of a nonprofit group
dedicated to researching psychedelics for medical uses.

She's been fighting for over a year to bring her 11-year-old grandson
home to Canada after he was taken into custody by the State of Oregon
and placed in foster care.

Noah Kirkman faces the possibility of being permanently adopted out to
strangers, despite having a mother and sister in Calgary, and at least
three willing homes where the Canadian boy might be cared for by blood
relatives.

One of those relations is Noah's mother Lisa Kirkman, and therein lies
the rub: Oregon's Department of Human Services considers Lisa such an
unfit parent, they'd rather keep Noah in the foster system than let
him come home.

They won't say why. Indeed, officials in that state won't even
acknowledge the existence of the Canadian child in their custody, who
lives with a foster family and attends school near Eugene, Ore.

"I am not able to provide you with any information about specific
child welfare cases," said Gene Evans, a state spokesman.

The silence is official, but Lisa Kirkman has reams of court documents
to back her story, which started when social workers arrived on the
doorstep to take Noah away "for a few days."

That was September 2008, and Lisa has been battling to get her son
back ever since, with her last physical contact in July 2009. Since
last summer, they've only spoken through supervised phone calls.

"It's an absolute and utter nightmare," said Lisa, a 34-year-old
freelance journalist. "To me this is an abduction - they took my child
from me for no reason."

[snip]

To make matters more sticky, Lisa has a criminal record in Canada. She
is a marijuana crusader and columnist, and was busted years ago for
growing medical marijuana without a permit.

That past led Oregon officials to keep Noah and place him in foster
care, forcing Lisa to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and swear off
drugs before they'll even consider returning her son.

On her deathbed in 2003, Cheryl Miller made her husband James promise
her that he would not give up their fight to have the use of marijuana
for medical purposes legalized.

Having suffered from a debilitating form of multiple sclerosis since
1971, Miller used marijuana to ease the painful symptoms of her
disease.

Together, the Toms River couple engaged in carefully crafted acts of
civil disobedience that culminated in 1998 with chomping down a piece
of marijuana outside the office of a congressman opposed to
legalization of the drug for any reason.

So when the Legislature on Monday approved a bill that would make New
Jersey the 14th state to allow chronically ill patients access to
marijuana for medical reasons, the occasion was bittersweet for James
Miller, 57, who still lives in Ocean County.

"I didn't hear the name Cheryl Miller mentioned. It's not why I went,
to hear my late wife's name mentioned," Miller said Wednesday, during
a speech at the Red Bank Public Library.

"You'd think maybe somebody who stood there in the beginning,
virtually by herself . . .," he continued, before stopping himself.
"When I say stand, she couldn't move her arms or her legs by herself
at all -- I mean that figuratively. So why do I think that was an
oversight?"

Though Cheryl Miller is credited with helping bring down former U.S.
Rep. Bob Barr's re-election bid in 2002 over the issue, a position
that Barr has since reversed, the controversial, in-your-face tactics
of the Millers have not exactly endeared them to the protocol and
image-conscious political establishment.

But in the 1990s, when the legalization of medical marijuana was seen
largely as a backdoor, slippery slope effort to decriminalize cannabis
altogether, unorthodox means were the only way the Millers could gain
any attention.

Interesting juxtaposition of methamphetamine related articles from
New Zealand this week. On the one hand the New Zealand Herald
informed us 4 out of 5 government-beholden "frontline anti-P" (the
media calls meth "P" there) "advocates" do agree: New Zealand's
government gets an A-plus for strengthening meth prohibition. On the
other hand, the Sunday News informs us New Zealand is now awash in
Shabu (a.k.a. Ya Ba, etc.) - imported methamphetamine tablets.
Classic balloon effect: "Ya Ba was imported following a major
shortage in the local P market, caused by police crackdowns on
dealers and gangs."

Meanwhile, back in the U.K. a similar balloon effect seen in the face
of the illegality of millennia-old plant medicines like cannabis, has
led to the popularity of legal designer drugs like mephedrone. The
alarm was sounded again in York last week when a 17-year-old
boarding-school student was carted off to the hospital after reacting
badly to the stuff.

From the El Paso Times this week we learn of the new, "changed"
strategy President Felipe Calderon will use to fight the tide of
prohibition-caused mayhem. What's this new strategy? Oh, same as the
old one: throw a few thousand soldiers at the violence-saturated
border town of Juarez. That should stop the flow of drugs and halt
the murders - just like it did before.

And finally this week from the Philippines, the Freeman newspaper
reports college students will be tested for drugs, especially their
"drug of choice," marijuana. This is because marijuana (as we all
know) "has no medicinal purpose and that it has ill effects that
destroys the mind and the body... Marijuana is declared by law as
dangerous drugs because it is a scientific fact that it is
addictive, abuse has ill effects just like shabu and other illegal
drugs." See, and now you thought taking cannabis induced the
munchies, and the munchies are good, right? Wrong! "The reason why
marijuana users crave for food is because it is destroying one's
stomach."

The Herald's War on P series last year produced an overwhelming
reaction from readers and a swift response from the Government. This
week, we revisit the people and the issues to find out what has
changed.

[snip]

PROGRESS REPORT

Three frontline anti-P advocates were asked to rate the Government's
policies. They gave it marks out of 10.

Alistair Burry - 7 out of 10 Stellar Trust chairman

Wants more police and Customs officers and faster change overall but
credits National for taking the problem seriously.

Mike Sabin - 6 out of 10 Methcon director

A mixed score. Sabin gives the Government a 9 for cracking down on
supply but 5 for treatment and only 2 for curbing demand.

A POWERFUL methamphetamine drug known as "crazy medicine" in
Thailand has hit New Zealand's capital city.

Sunday News has been told tens of thousands of Ya Ba pills arrived
in Wellington late last year from the infamous Golden Triangle.

The Ya Ba was imported following a major shortage in the local P
market, caused by police crackdowns on dealers and gangs. More than
380 officers worked on 12 operations across the country in November
and December, resulting in nearly 400 arrests and the discovery of
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the Class A drug.

THE head of a school at the centre of a drugs scare has said every
head teacher in the country should be aware of "legal highs".

Jeff Bower, head of Woldgate College, in Pocklington, said the
drug-induced collapse which saw a 17-year-old sixth-former rushed to
York Hospital, had hit the school "right between the eyes" - and
urged other heads to take pro-active action to prevent further
incidents.

The pupil, who has not been named, has been suspended from school
indefinitely for consuming the drug mephedrone, a "legal high" drug
- one that mirrors the effects of prohibited substances, but is not
banned. Mr Bower said he was facing one of two options in regard to
the boy.

[snip]

The drug - commonly known as Meow, bubbles, M-CAT or 4-MMC - is not
controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and is available to
purchase in some shops or through the internet providing it is sold
as plant fertiliser that it is not for human consumption.

The recreational drug comes in crystal, powder, capsule or liquid
form and has effects similar to that of amphetamines and ecstasy.

JUAREZ -- President Felipe Calderon will use a slightly different
approach in combating the ongoing drug violence that has claimed
more than 4,350 lives since the beginning of 2008.

Calderon announced that an additional 2,000 federal police officers
would be deployed to Juarez this month. The officers, he said, will
help stop extortions and kidnappings that continue to victimize
people of all backgrounds.

[snip]

Rival drug gangs -- reportedly the Juarez and the Si naloa cartels
-- continue their savage and unrelenting war for control of the
area's drug trade. More than 120 people have already been killed in
2010.

Preventive and demand reduction advocates of the Department of
Education, PDEA, PNP and the Dangerous Drugs Board must educate the
youth that marijuana has no medicinal purpose and that it has ill
effects that destroys the mind and the body.

Marijuana is declared by law as dangerous drugs because it is a
scientific fact that it is addictive, abuse has ill effects just
like shabu and other illegal drugs.

According to DDB, myth propagated by old-timers that marijuana
sniffing has no ill effects and even serves to restore appetite is
totally erroneous. The reason why marijuana users crave for food is
because it is destroying one's stomach.

Areas in the country identified as marijuana plantations like
Benguet, Balamban of Cebu and San Fernando of Bukidnon has been
changed to abaca plantations and silkworm industry.

This year, it is expected that the random drug testing for high
school conducted by Department of Education in coordination with the
Department of Health will go full swing, while the Commission on
Higher Education has initially started testing college students.

The Obama administration has pledged to end federal interference in
states that have legalized medical marijuana. But in Colorado, it has
failed to call off one of its dogs.

A Coloradan who works for the president's drug-policy office is
leading efforts to undermine the state's constitutional amendment
allowing cannabis for medical use. On the federal dime, Tom Gorman,
director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
program, is lobbying state lawmakers to gut the Colorado law.

Either Gorman didn't get the memo about changes in federal drug
policy, or he's going rogue. Whichever the case, no one in D.C. seems
to mind.

"I'm not about to stand back and let federal drug laws in this country
continue to be violated," Gorman says.

Since President Barack Obama took office a year ago, the Justice
Department has taken the stance that pot-smoking patients and
sanctioned suppliers shouldn't be targeted for federal prosecution in
states that allow medical marijuana.

Gorman has spent years lobbying against Amendment 20, which Coloradans
approved in 2000. If Obama has shifted direction on medical marijuana,
the 66-year-old veteran of three administrations' drug wars obviously
hasn't followed. Pot smokers are gaming the system, he complains, and
addiction, chaos and moral decay no doubt will ensue. He's trying to
convince lawmakers that they'd be sanctioning drug trafficking by
passing a bill that would set specific rules on growing and selling
pot, even for medicinal use.

"If Colorado state leaders elect to legitimize and try to regulate
dispensaries, that action would be in violation of Federal Law . . .,"
he threatened in a memo that's being passed around the state Capitol.

"Dispensaries aren't what Coloradans had in mind when they approved
the amendment," adds Gorman, who, in addition to his expertise on
drugs, apparently has his finger on the pulse of the electorate.

Gorman has a contract that funnels $150,000 a year in federal money
through a regional grant administered by Douglas County. Though he
runs an arm of the National Drug Control Policy office in four Western
states, he parses that he doesn't work for the feds.

"Technically, if you ask me who I represent, it's the Colorado Drug
Investigators Association," he tells me, oddly.

That technicality exempts him from longstanding federal laws
prohibiting federal workers from lobbying, he claims. Meanwhile, he's
lobbying without having registered as a lobbyist, and says he's doing
so with the nod of his bosses.

"It's not uncommon for us to weigh in at the statehouse," he says.
"It's a part of the guy's job to share his expertise."

Whether for or against medical marijuana, you'll probably agree that
government has no business paying functionaries to work in
contradiction to its own policies.

"There's certainly something wrong when the Obama administration, on
one hand, states that it's going to respect state laws, but on the
other hand sends in an official to try to make those laws as
restrictive as possible," says Steve Fox of the national Marijuana
Policy Project.

Gorman seems curiously unconcerned about the security of his
government-sponsored crusade. Drug trafficking is drug trafficking, he
says, no matter what you call it.

And a lobbyist is a lobbyist, no matter which government agency
happens to be laundering his paycheck.

"I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead
citizens to do very ill-considered things in common; but without
newspapers there would be hardly any common action at all. So they
mend many more ills than they cause." - Alexis de Tocqueville

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